LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document

Search Terms: late term abortion AND ban

Document 61 of 179.

March 16,2000, Thursday

SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 4D

LENGTH: 386 words

HEADLINE: LATE-TERM ABORTION BAN CLEARS PANEL, HEADS TO FLOOR OF SENATE

BYLINE: Lee Leonard, Dispatch Statehouse Reporter

BODY:

Legislation prohibiting a certain type of late-term abortion has reached its final stages in the General Assembly and might soon be on its way to Gov. Bob Taft.

House Bill 351, making it a crime to intentionally kill a fetus that has partially emerged from the mother's womb, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday 7-3 and is expected to reach the Senate floor today.

If it passes, only House agreement with Senate changes would stand in the way of sending the heavily sponsored proposal to the governor. The House passed a nearly identical version of the bill in December. Similar legislation enacted in Nebraska was struck down by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but is now before the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal. Oral arguments are scheduled for April 25.

Mark Lally of the Ohio Right to Life Society said the language in House Bill 351 is more specific and precise than the Nebraska law to ensure that it would prohibit only the intentional killing of a fetus after a major portion has emerged from the womb. Other forms of abortion still would be legal in Ohio, he said.

Abortion-rights activists have complained that the bill is an end- run around court decisions that have struck down attempts in other states to forbid late-term abortions.

Sen. Robert E. Latta, R-Bowling Green, the committee chairman, said committee amendments further tightened language in the bill and specified that it does not prohibit the dilation and evacuation method of abortion.

"This bill is intended to reflect a line between abortion and infanticide, '' Lally said.

The bill would make partial-birth abortion of a fetus a second-degree felony, carrying a prison term of two to eight years. The bill would make the doctor liable for intentionally killing a fetus with a beating heart once the body has partially emerged.

"We're saying, if you're going to pull a body halfway out and kill it, that's something that the state of Ohio is not going to stand silent for,'' Lally said.

The procedure would be permissible if necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.

Sen. Eric D. Fingerhut, D-Shaker Heights, one of the three committee members to oppose the bill, questioned the rush. He said the legislature should wait until the high court rules in the Nebraska case.

LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2000

Document 61 of 179.


Search Terms: late term abortion AND ban
To narrow your search, please enter a word or phrase: